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By JOHN SHEIRER

Donald Trump and his supporters are currently the leading purveyors of “alternative facts” and “fake news,” but they didn’t invent these phenomena. They simply took advantage of a political climate that discouraged critical thinking and promoted...

By BILL NEWMAN

People with pre-existing conditions fear that they “are going to die because of a vote we might be taking.”Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Florida) said that earlier this week. He added, “(A) lot of people … call my office … daily who are extremely angry … because...

By CLARE HIGGINS

Saturday is President Trump’s 100th day in office.Trump promised a long list of achievements – from repealing the Affordable Care Act to withdrawing from NAFTA to proposing an infrastructure plan. Mexico certainly will not be paying for the “big,...

By PETER IVES

It was while looking at the distant stars in the night sky that the book of Genesis became important to me. “In the beginning God created the heaven and earth and God said, ‘Let there be light.’ ”My favorite theologian Paul Tillich used to say, “When...

By JOHN PARADIS

Over eggs and bacon at the Bluebonnet Diner one recent morning in Northampton, Donald F. Moulton was smiling and talking about getting his campsite ready in southern Vermont. He was, as he has always done in his life, looking forward, not back.But to...

President Donald Trump’s decision to retaliate against Syria for a chemical weapons attack on its own citizens and to condemn Russia’s support for the repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad has left heads spinning and people trying to decide among at...

By JOE GANNON

Captain Chaos and Bomb Chucker Bannon continue to offer such a dizzyingly daily cornucopia of new outrages and foot-in-mouth gaffes that you could be forgiven for not being able to look away from your screen.But I found myself recently trying to look...

By JEFF NAPOLITANO

Jay Fleitman’s column in the April 4 Daily Hampshire Gazette (“Sanctuary city advocates protect criminals”) is as close to journalistic negligence as I imagine one can get.Let’s start with his ubiquitous use of the term “illegal immigrant,” which the...

By LAWRENCE B. SIDDALL

It seems that the news we hear about Iran these days is mostly negative. This is troubling to me as someone who has been there because the media doesn’t tell us much about the Iranian people.Since my brief visit there almost two years ago, I have...

By CHERYL ZOLL

Congressional lawmakers in Washington may have backed off their drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but they are certain to consider other harmful policy changes and funding cuts that could limit women’s access to reproductive health care and the...

By BILL NEWMAN

The Preamble begins, “We the People.” The evening of March 26, a large group gathered at the Haymarket Café in Northampton to read the United States Constitution and its amendments. The thought was, we talk about the Constitution a lot but we actually...

By GLORIA  DIFULVIO

In Aesop’s fable, “The Boy who Cried Wolf,” a shepherd boy repeatedly tricks villagers into believing a wolf is attacking their sheep. Alarmed, villagers run to the boy’s aid only to find he had made up the story.Everyone wants to believe the boy...

By DON ROBINSON

There have been two great presidents in American history: Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We can learn a lot from studying how they became great presidents.First, they were preceded by a parade of nonentities, men who staggered blindly...

By NATALIA MUÑOZ

President Obama finally found his muscle on Israel, dispatching the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to draw a line against the expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands. Then Secretary of State John Kerry explained why the U.S. cannot...

By JOHN SHEIRER

Growing up, I attended a tiny Lutheran church near our family farm. During a Christmas service four decades ago, as our beloved pastor was delivering another soft-spoken sermon about kindness and grace, thick sheets of snow thundered down the pitched...

By BILL NEWMAN

A year ago I could not have imagined asking or being asked the question, is fascism at America’s door? Now I find it critical to contemplate the answer.The question takes me back to my senior year at Antioch College in 1972 when I was taking a course...

By CLARE HIGGINS

Eight years ago we were in the middle of what is now known as the Great Recession.The wildly inflated housing bubble burst, causing a crisis in the banking sector and sharp declines in consumer spending. The American auto industry was on the verge of...

By DON ROBINSON

Advent, the Christian season that concludes with the winter solstice, is a time of repentance and of hope, in preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ.Believers understand Advent in the context of the history of Israel. Abraham entered...

By GLORIA DIFULVIO

In a post-election Facebook post, Dan Rather had this to say: “Now is a time when none of us can afford to remain seated or silent. We must all stand and be counted.” The challenges we face after the election are beyond party and politics he...

By J.M. SORRELL

Over the last five weeks, I have been reflecting upon the results of the general election, and I have been grieving and feeling deep concern for the future of our country and the world at large.My integrity as a participant in society now must be more...